Terra makes an appearance, causing you all to fall silent. She isn’t wearing her usual instructor’s uniform. She’s wearing a black flight suit, hemmed tight around her waist and hips, strapped with various items and weapons.

She looks different. Not just in her clothes, but in her face too. There’s more purpose there, more intensity. Her eyes are always beautiful, but right now they’re flashing blue steel. The sunlight shows her maturity, and the little marks of war on her skin. She usually looks like a teacher. Right now, she looks like a soldier. You feel fluttering erupt in your stomach just looking at her. She looks like she could take on an army by herself and win. You find yourself feeling drawn to her on so many different levels. Your desire for her, your admiration of her, your need to impress her. They’re all warring as you stand there mute.

“Cadets,” she says, nodding to you all. “Welcome to the First SSO. We will be departing for our remote encampment in a few minutes. Before we go, I want to make a few things clear. This is not a typical unit. All three of you have very different capacities and capabilities. You will need to learn to work as a small, coherent unit. There will be no room, whatsoever, for conflict.” Her gaze lands on you and you want to shrink into the concrete. Kicking Boris that day was a mistake. “Understood?”

“Yes ma’am!” A chorus of your three voices answers her.

“There will also be no room for disobedience,” she says in clipped tones. “When I give an order, it is to be followed immediately. The consequence for failing to obey is physical punishment. There will be no disciplinary tribunal. There will be no court of appeal. There will be my law and my law alone. You may not always agree with my methods, and you might not think my discipline is fair. I don’t care about fair. I care about training you all to the peak of your abilities. Do you understand?”

Again you all chorus your assent. It doesn’t really matter what she says, you’re all buzzing with anticipation. Even Sarah the Clone looks excited at the prospect of what lies ahead. Boris is practically levitating at what she’s saying. Somewhere in all the excitement, you feel a little twinge of anxiety. Terra is so different right now, so stern and so aggressively feminine. Where is the nice Terra who turned you over her knee and snuggled you on her lap afterward? Have you lost that forever?

“We have transport waiting on the pad,” she announces. “First SSO, move out!”

Boris tears off toward the transport pad at a run. Sarah follows after him with a quick stride. You find yourself hanging back a step.

“Second thoughts, cadet? Last chance to back out,” Terra says to you. For a brief moment, you see a flash of the Terra you’ve known before. The warmth in her eyes is back.

“We’re in trouble, aren’t we,” you say to her. “I mean, all of us.”

“That’s why I picked you, cadet,” Terra says, reaching out to tousle your hair. “You’re a smart kid. Now, unless there’s something important you need to tell me, get your butt on that transport.”

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